Editorial: More to celebrate July 4th than you might think

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It’s the Fourth of July, a time we celebrate the birth of the United States, though actually, it’s a time to celebrate a whole lot more.

If we were going to be technical, the birth of the United States should be observed on March 4, as that was the date in 1789 when the Constitution went into effect, which actually set up the government that has carried us for the 230 years since then.

But on July 4, 1776, a number of brave men did something unprecedented: They told a king to stuff it. They signed the Declaration of Independence

The act wasn’t just brave. It was almost unimaginable. The world then was governed by rulers with an absolute power that was regarded as god-given — the “divine right” of kings and queens. There was a class of leaders, and the rest of the population was put on the planet to serve their wishes.

Opposition would cost you your life. And while tyrants were occasionally overthrown, it wasn’t by an uprising of the general public. Instead, another member of the class of god-blessed leaders would seize that same absolute power for himself, or herself. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

But the Declaration of Independence held that governments derive their “just powers from the consent of the governed.” That was an absurdity then, even though on its face it is obvious. A nation consists of a mass of people. It should not exist unless it supports the welfare of that mass of people, rather than the handful with their hands on the reins of power.

It took a while to catch on, but now, that’s now the default philosophy when it comes to governance. We still have tyrants, and those who would seek to be tyrants, but gone is the right to a god-given claim to be a tyrant.

The blatant brute force sustained despots in the past is tempered by a changed reality. The would-be autocrats of today instead rely on deception, and intimidation to quiet their foes, and degradation to weaken those foes’ influence over others. And a little brute force if they can get away with it, or prompt someone to do it in their stead.

It’s not a perfect world, but it’s totally changed from that day long ago when 56 men put their lives on the line to claim, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

It was a just a dream then. But in the 240-some years since, that idea has become believed, worldwide.

So when you celebrate America’s birthday today, celebrate as well the idea of personal freedom around the world. The idea still faces oppression, but before July Fourth 1776, it didn’t even exist. It’s America’s gift to the world. Cheers!